Large machines for moving material such as a rope shovels, mining shovels, and excavators may move large amounts of material with each material movement cycle. During such material moving cycles, material may be dumped or displaced along undesired areas. Such undesired material may adversely affect the performance of the material movement cycles, either by impacting a loading, digging, or dumping operation, or by disrupting a desired route or path along which a machine may travel.
Accordingly, additional, smaller machines may operate in conjunction with the larger machines to move the undesired material in order to improve the efficiency of the larger material moving machines. Operation of the machines in close proximity to each other may present risks of collisions between the machines. In addition, because of the size of some of the machines, it may be difficult or impossible to quickly stop the machines to avoid collisions. Still further, visibility from within the machines, in particular large machines, may be limited thus further increasing the risk of collision.
Systems have been developed to generate avoidance zones around machines to reduce the likelihood of collisions. U.S. Pat. No. 8,768,583 discloses a rope shovel with a system for detecting objects in proximity to the rope shovel. Upon detecting an object, the system may augment control of the rope shovel to mitigate the impact of a possible collision. Alerts in the form of audible, visual or haptic feedback may be provided to the operator of the rope shovel
The foregoing background discussion is intended solely to aid the reader. It is not intended to limit the innovations described herein, nor to limit or expand the prior art discussed. Thus, the foregoing discussion should not be taken to indicate that any particular element of a prior system is unsuitable for use with the innovations described herein, nor is it intended to indicate that any element is essential in implementing the innovations described herein. The implementations and application of the innovations described herein are defined by the appended claims.